Sport

Caldicot Castle B 1 Underwood Athletic A 13

TITLE-CHASING Underwood were stung into action after going a goal behind to their division two hosts at the leisure centre on Saturday.

Craig McCluskey’s goal was closely followed by another half chance for Castle but, according to Underwood manager Danny Williams, that was the “kick in the pants” his team needed.

“We played them last week in another cup and were leading 4-1 when the referee abandoned the game. They were always in it and their keeper made some good saves,” he said.

“But today, once we equalised we weren’t troubled.”

Underwood played well against a 10-man Castle side.

It took a while to break down an eight-man defence but once they equalised through the ever-improving Elliot Camfield they weren’t troubled until the end when their keeper Justin Bidgood had to dive full length to turn a header around a post.

Kyle Harrison struck a fine 20-yarder to put them ahead and it was one-way traffic for the rest of the first half.

Tom Turner made it 3-1 when he turned smartly in the box and squeezed his shot inside the near post and then Lee Ryder, who seemed to be involved in just about every move and deserved his manager’s man-of-the-match accolade, added the fourth.

Defender Sean Johnson collected a pass from Camfield to make it 5-1 and then Camfield scored his second with a neat header. Josh Downing launched himself at a cross to head the seventh and Camfield completed his hat-trick just before the break.

Johnson, Ryder, Downing and sub Dave Jackson added more goals in the second half before an own goal completed the rout, although Downing insisted he had applied the final touch.

“We thought it was going to be a lot tougher after last week,” said Williams.

“This is the building block for the rest of the season and we’ll take the confidence from this win into some tough games ahead.”

In the only other cup tie to survive the weather, division one Blackrock Rovers won 3-2 at division two Chepstow Athletic in a scrappy affair.

“We started well but the pitch turned unplayable, but that’s the excitement of the cup,” said manager Mark Thomas.